While his longtime trainer Freddie Roach has been prodding him to go for a KO win in his last two fights following his loss to Floyd Mayweather, its seems Roach’s call is falling on deaf ears.
In some of his previous fights following his KO win against Miguel Cotto in 2009, Pacquiao had a number of opportunities to go for a KO victory but opted to just settle for points win.
When asked about the reason behind Pacquiao’s long knockout holiday, Roach says it may have something to do with Pacquiao’s religious beliefs.
“I would love to see him get his killer instinct back and go for the knockout. I know we haven’t done that in a long time and the bible has a lot to do with that, and it’s very tough to argue with the bible. The thing is, people like knockouts in boxing and Manny has lost a lot of his crowd because he hasn’t knocked anyone out in such a long time. I think he needs to get back to that, and I would love to see him do that, and this is the perfect fight to do it in,” Roach told Jenna J of OTR Boxing.
Roach may be right with his assessment that Pacquiao has lost a substantial number of supporters because they’re not happy with him just winning the fights on points. They’ve been used to seeing Pacquiao knocking out opponents left and right regardless of their sizes and other superior physical attributes.
While Pacquiao would still be capable of going for KO wins, he probably thinks that winning a fight on points is less risky than going for a KO win considering his advancing age. Winning on points is certainly better than suffering a loss which usually brings about a sharp decline on his popularity.
For Pacquiao, there is nothing else to prove because he has already shown his supporters what he was capable of doing when it comes to knocking out opponents.
Pacquiao is now a thinking fighter as he approaches the pinnacle of his career and perhaps he believes that while a KO win will bring about more lucrative fights, it would be prudent for him to just be happy with a win and not necessarily by way of knockout.
Still, Roach believes that the best time to score a KO win is on July 2 when Pacquiao collides with Horn at the Suncorp Arena and he is confident that Pacquiao’s killer instinct will be resurrected for his first KO win since his last knockout victory against Miguel Cotto in 2009.
Pacquiao is the overwhelming favorite to win over Horn considering the disparity in their career records in terms of experience, skill, speed and power.
